SCC, NVL, CSC football notebook: Seymour loses Searles for season

Published 11:13 pm, Thursday, October 1, 2009

SEYMOUR'S SEARLES OUT FOR SEASON -- Seymour running back Taylor Searles' high school football career is over. The senior is out for the season with a torn ACL and MCL in his left knee.

"It feels fake, it hasn't sunken in yet that I'm not going to play," Searles said.

Also, Seymour senior quarterback Connor Shugrue is out for 2-4 weeks with a partially torn MCL in his right knee, according to coach Tom Lennon. Lennon said fourth-string freshman QB Mike Conlan will start in Shugrue's place. Sophomore fullback Jon Wilson and junior fullback Damien Granda will fill in for Searles in tonight's game at Torrington.

Conlan will start because second-string QB, sophomore Luke Grabowski, sustained a deep bone bruise in his left knee at practice last week. Grabowski is out for 1-2 weeks. Searles was the third-string QB. Both Shugrue and Searles were hurt in Seymour's 41-21 loss to Watertown last weekend.

"This rivalry has been good for us and West Haven," Notre Dame-West Haven coach Tom Marcucci said.

Notre Dame-West Haven junior quarterback Sean Goldrich said he played Pop Warner football three years ago with West Haven's junior fullback Kevin Phillips, senior tight end Gary Williams and a few other West Haven players.

Quarterback David James passed for three touchdowns and ran for a score in the win.

"We want to win every week," Abbott Tech coach Chris Mascolo said. "Being a first-year program is no excuse. It wasn't our goal to win one game and then go 1-9. Our goal is to win every week."

GET YOUR POPCORN READY -- Woodland and Wolcott, two of the highest scoring teams in the NVL, meet tonight at 7 in Beacon Falls in an NVL interdivisional game. Woodland (2-0) is first in the NVL in points with 95. Wolcott (2-0) is second with 84 points.

Shea said this may be an early season test for the Hawks. Wolcott defeated Woodland last season 29-21 in Week 1.

"They cause some problems for us," Shea said. "We're going to try to cause some problems for them as well. Our kids have to be ready."

SCC'S NAILBITERS -- The SCC was filled with close games in Week 2. Both Xavier and Foran won by one point. In Foran's win over Guilford, the Lions led 21-20 in the fourth after a Guilford TD with a little over five minutes left. The score would stay 21-20 after Foran's Ricky Festa blocked the ensuing Guilford extra point to seal the win. In Xavier's win over ND-West Haven, the Falcons were down 21-7 at the half but scored 22 third quarter points, including a 9-yard run by Hayes, to cut the score to one. Then a go-ahead two-point conversion pass from Alex Pace to Hayes wrapped up the 29-28 victory.